‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Gives Me Hope For The New ‘Superman’ Film
When Marvel head boss Kevin Feige first announced that they were producing a Guardians of the Galaxy film, I remember thinking, “OK, here’s where the MCU jumps the shark.” This was probably around 2012, when Marvel had two Iron Man films under its belt, as well as the first Thor film and the tantalizingly titled Captain America: The First Avenger. And of course, there was the massive success of The Avengers, which brought together Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Chris Evans’ Captain America, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk (who had his own film via Sony Studios), as well as Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow (who we’d met in Iron Man 2), Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye (who cameoed in Thor) and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who had been introduced in previous films.
It’s funny to think about today but at the time, there were managed expectations for The Avengers. Could they actually tie together storylines from four different franchises? Could all the movie star egos really be managed to create a good story that holds up to the excitement of the solo films without feeling bloated? We soon learned that Marvel could pull off things that comic book fans only dreamed of. The Avengers had a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes and cleared a billion dollars at the box office, becoming the third highest-grossing film of all time (at the time).
So, Marvel and studio head Kevin Feige were clearly riding high. Maybe a bit too high. A film about the Guardians of the Galaxy frankly sounded ridiculous. I barely remembered the Guardians from my days reading comic books. How would this team of misfits — who most moviegoers had never heard of — be able to support a feature-length film? On top of that, the director and co-writer was James Gunn. He’d written some cool movies (1997’s Tromeo & Juliet, 2004’s Dawn of the Dead reboot), and was writer/director for 2006’s horror flick Slither and 2010’s superhero parody Super (starring Rainn Wilson!). But was this a guy to create a blockbuster? Marvel isn’t in the business of indie-filmmaking. How big could you make the Guardians of the Galaxy?
Pretty big, as it turned out. At the time, I wondered how the guy who did Super would handle a “real” superhero movie. Super was the type of parody that was made from a place of love; it didn’t look down on comic books and comic book fans. It was clearly made by someone who knew a lot about comic books. So, I figured maybe this Guardians of the Galaxy thing had some potential. And then I saw the trailer.
Despite not having any prior investment with the characters — and having a healthy sense of concern that Marvel was getting too successful for its own good — after seeing the first trailer, I was all-in.
A lot of people were all-in: the film, released ten years ago this week, made $94 million in its opening weekend in America; it has gone on to gross over $773 million worldwide. It has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This was a new kind of story for the MC: a group of misfits teaming up after being thrown together in an interstellar prison was much different than the Avengers assembling. The Guardians became a chosen family, and one we identified with. Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill and Zoe Saldana’s Gamora were loners with father issues who were drawn to each other. Rocket Racoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper, felt like a real character, even though he is a talking racoon (and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was really his story). Dave Bautista’s Drax was a proxy for anyone who has known grief and had tried to work through it; it also made filmgoers on the autism spectrum feel seen. And Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel)? Well, he is Groot. We even loved the support characters: Karen Gillan’s Nebula (estranged sister of Gamora), Michael Rooker’s Yondu (Quill’s mean but maybe well-intentioned adopted “daddy”) and Sean Gunn’s Kraglin (Yondu’s right-hand guy) all were identifiable in strange but endearing ways.
The Guardians films exist within the MCU, of course. They played a major role in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (especially Rocket and Gamora). But you could watch all three Guardians films without seeing any other Marvel movies, and you’d still be able to follow the story. That’s key. The films never get bogged down in Marvel lore: for all the incredible special effects (and music), the movies are always stories about family and loyalty. That’s why they work so well.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 proved that “superhero fatigue” isn’t really a thing: it’s just that you need to tell good stories. It also ended an arc that Gunn started with the first film. We know we’ll see at least some of these characters again, but Gunn took great care of them while they were under his charge.
No one’s perfect, of course, and neither is Gunn: when he tried to do a similar group of misfits film for DC with 2021’s The Suicide Squad, it didn’t really work. But he even spun that into gold, via the Peacemaker series on Max. While ostensibly a solo show featuring the not-very-well-known anti-hero Peacemaker (played to perfection by John Cena), it also had the “misfits thrown together” vibe, thanks to Danielle Brooks’ Leota Adebayo (daughter of the tough and ruthless Amanda Waller), Freddie Stroma’s Adrian Chase (aka the Vigilante) and A.R.G.U.S. agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland). It combined rated-R humor with a sweet heart, and it’s likely what convinced Warner Bros./Discovery to hire Gunn as co-CEO of DC Studios.
Gunn’s first film as studio head is Superman. Superman is perhaps the most iconic superhero of all; he’s so powerful that it can be a challenge to write compelling stories about him. And he has such a “good guy”/boy scout vibe that he doesn’t always play well in our culture, which is obsessed with dark, brooding, conflicted antiheroes. It’s more of a Batman era than a Superman era.
Gunn is good at writing “dark” characters, but he also knows that not everything needs to be dark. After all, light and darkness define each other. Superman isn’t a dark character. He is, in fact, the ultimate immigrant, with all the optimism that comes with that. He was brought up by proud midwestern American parents. He sees and believes in the American dream. He believes that the world is, inherently, a good place, but you’ve got to fight to keep it that way (he’s not unlike Captain America in that regard). But, some may wonder, is this the kind of film that James Gunn can make? Well, we know that the 2005-2008 All-Star Superman was one of his big inspirations when he was writing the story. That comic book series was written by Grant Morrison, who also made his name with darker fare. Morrison wrote some bonkers titles, including Animal Man, The Invisibles, and Doom Patrol, along with some rather grim Batman tales. But Morrison knew that the essence of Superman is not to be dark. And Gunn knows it too
Yesterday (July 30), Gunn and the crew wrapped shooting on the film. In an Instagram post, he wrote, “God bless our cast and crew whose commitment, creativity, and hard work have brought this project to life. I set out to make a movie about a good man in a world that isn’t always so much. And the goodness and kindness and love I’ve encountered on a daily basis on the set has inspired me and thrust me forward when I felt too spent to move on my own. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It has been an honor. The destination has been Superman, but the journey has been the toil and the laughter and the emotions and ideas and magic we’ve shared together on set – and for that I am forever grateful.”
If I hadn’t been totally sold on the idea of a Gunn-Superman film before this (and I was), this would have sealed the deal.
I don’t just feel that James Gunn is a “good” choice to make a Superman film in the 2020s. He’s the best choice — the perfect choice — to do it. July 11, 2025 – Superman‘s release date – is a year away, but it can’t come soon enough.
